The present invention relates to an electronic-money collecting system which is used for electronically collecting a lost IC card (debit card) containing electronic money.
A system which allows an IC card for recording money data issued by a banking organization to be used as an electronic purse has been described in the article xe2x80x98Value Transfer Systemxe2x80x99 in International Publication No. WO91/16691 (or Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 5-504643). Electronic purses, each implemented by an IC card (sometimes referred to as a debit card), make up an xe2x80x98electronic-pursexe2x80x99 system in conjunction with an account management system for loading money into an electronic purse and for controlling the exact calculation of money transactions. The xe2x80x98electronic-pursexe2x80x99 system electronically transfers money from a bank account into a memory in an IC card, treating the IC card like an xe2x80x98electronic pursexe2x80x99. In this case, since money (or strictly speaking, money data) stored in the IC card is in actuality neither a bill nor a coin, the term xe2x80x98electronic moneyxe2x80x99 is used in order to distinguish the money stored in an IC card from a bill or a coin. Money can be transferred from one IC card to another IC card through an account management system. In such a transfer of money, it is not necessary for the user to confirm the transfer of money with a banking organization. As a result, the processing to transfer money can be carried out in the same way as transferring cash to another person. In addition, at a banking organization, electronic money can be transferred and drawn as in the case of a cash transaction.
At any rate, in many cases, transaction processing using an xe2x80x98electronic pursexe2x80x99 implemented by an IC card can be carried out without the need for confirmation of money transfer by a banking organization. As a result, when an IC card is lost, the money stored in the IC card is also lost, and like ordinary money, it is impossible to recover the money stored in the lost IC card unless the IC card itself is found. In addition, even if the lost IC card is found by a third person, the amount of money stored therein is not visible, giving rise to a problem that the probability that the lost IC card will be returned to the owner or reported to the institution issuing the IC card or to the police is very low. Thus, there has been a problem that money stored in a lost electronic purse will never be recovered in comparison with cash.
In addition, even if the lost IC card is reported to the institution issuing the IC card, the institution needs to follow a procedure for finding the legitimate owner of the reported IC card and for returning the IC card to the owner or re-issuing a new IC card in answer to a request made by the owner of the lost IC card, giving rise to a problem that the burdens to be borne by the institution and the owner losing the IC card itself are heavy.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an electronic-money collecting system which is capable of returning a lost IC card serving as an xe2x80x98electronic pursexe2x80x99 to the owner or an institution issuing the lost IC card with a high degree of efficiency without imposing a heavy burden on the IC-card finder or the IC card issuing institution.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic-money collecting system which is capable of enhancing the possibility of collection of money stored in a lost IC card by giving a finder of the lost IC card a predetermined amount of reward money.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide an electronic-money collecting system which is capable of preventing a bad faith finder of a lost IC card from being given reward money.
In order to achieve the objects described above, the present invention provides an electronic-money collecting system wherein, when a found IC card having money recorded therein is inserted into a terminal unit installed at an institution, such as a banking organization or a public facility, money stored in the IC card is electronically collected; information read out from the IC card is transmitted to a control center by way of a transmission line; information on the legitimate owner of the IC card, such as the address of the owner, is used by the control center for automatically searching for the owner; and the owner is notified by a communication of the processing to collect the money stored in the IC card. Accompanying the electronic collection of the money, the IC card itself may or may not be physically retained in the terminal unit.
As described above, in order to increase the possibility of collection, a predetermined amount of reward money is given to a finder of a lost IC card. The reward money is given to a finder of a lost IC card by adding money corresponding to a certain amount of reward money to money data stored in the IC card of the lost-IC-card finder. For example, when a lost IC card of an unknown owner is found, the lost-IC-card finder can go to an institution, such as a banking organization or a public facility at which a terminal unit is installed, and insert the found IC card into the terminal unit. Then, information is read out from the IC card automatically and a collection processing is carried out. At the same time, reward money is given to the lost-IC-card finder. When the collection processing has been completed, the owner of the found IC card is notified by a communication of the completion of the collection processing, using a telephone, a letter or electronic mail. After the notification, the owner of the found IC card follows a procedure to get back the amount of money stored in the found IC card. In this case, the reward money given to the finder of the IC card is subtracted from the original amount retrieved from the lost IC card.
In this way, the electronic-money collecting system is capable of returning a lost IC card to the owner or of collecting the lost IC card at an institution issuing the lost IC card with a high degree of efficiency without placing a troublesome burden on the finder of the IC card or the institution. Further, since a predetermined amount of reward money is added to money data stored in the IC card of the lost-IC-card finder, the possibility of collection or return of the lost IC card can be increased.
It should be noted that, when reward money is to be paid to a finder of a lost IC card, a person acting in bad faith, such as a person who steals the IC card of another person, may make an attempt to get some reward money by pretending to be a finder of a lost IC card. In order to avoid such bad faith, the number of times an incorrect password is entered, the ID of equipment used by the person of bad faith or other information are recorded. When the incorrect password has been entered a number of times exceeding a predetermined maximum number, the collection processing is terminated and the IC card of the person of bad faith is revoked.